the disadvantage of the weak. This may be done consciously or
unconsciously. There are examples enough of both. Here the merchant
deals in the labor of men. This is a legitimate article of traffic, and
dealing in it is quite indispensable in the present condition of
affairs. In the Southern States, the merchant, whether producer,
manufacturer or trader, owns men and deals in their labor, or their
bodies. He uses their labor, giving them just enough of the result of
that labor to keep their bodies in the most profitable working state;
the rest of that result he steals for his own use, and by that residue
becomes rich and famous. He owns their persons and gets their labor by
direct violence, though sanctioned by law. That is slavery. He steals
the man and his labor. Here it is possible to do a similar thing: I mean
it is possible to employ men and give them just enough of the result of
their labor to keep up a miserable life, and yourself take all the rest
of the result of that labor. This may be done consciously or otherwise,
but legally, without direct violence, and without owning the person.
This is not slavery, though only one remove from it. This is the tyranny
of the strong over the weak; the feudalism of money; stealing a man's
work, and not his person. The merchants as a class are exposed to this
very temptation. Sometimes it is yielded to. Some large fortunes have
been made in this way. Let me mention some extreme cases; one from
abroad, one near at home. In Belgium the average wages of men in
manufactories is less than twenty-seven cents a day. The most skilful
women in that calling can earn only twenty cents a day, and many very
much less.[23] In that country almost every seventh man receives charity
from the public: the mortality of operatives, in some of the cities, is
ten per cent. a year! Perhaps that is the worst case which you can find
on a large scale even in Europe. How much better off are many women in
Boston who gain their bread by the needle? yes a large class of women in
all our great cities? The ministers of the poor can answer that; your
police can tell of the direful crime to which necessity sometimes drives
women whom honest labor cannot feed!
I know it will be said, "Buy in the cheapest market and sell in the
dearest; get work at the lowest wages." Still there is another view of
the case, and I am speaking to men whose professed religion declares
that all are brothers, and demands that the strong help the weak.
Oppression of this sort is one fertile source of pauperism and crime.
How much there is of it I know not, but I think men seldom cry unless
they are hurt. When men are gathered together in large masses, as in the
manufacturing towns, if there is any oppression of this sort, it is sure
to get told of, especially in New England. But when a small number are
employed, and they isolated from one another, the case is much harder.
Perhaps no class of laborers in New England is worse treated than the
hired help of small proprietors.
Then, too, there is a temptation to abuse their political power to the
injury of the nation, to make laws which seem good for themselves, but
are baneful to the people; to control the churches, so that they shall
not dare rebuke the actual sins of the nation, or the sins of trade, and
so the churches be made apologizers for lowness, practising infidelity
as their sacrament, but in the name of Christ and God. The ruling power
in England once published a volume of sermons, as well as a book of
prayers, which the clergy were commanded to preach. What sort of a
gospel got recommended therein, you may easily guess; and what is
recommended by the class of merchants in New England, you may as easily
hear.
* * * * *
But if their temptations are great, the opportunities of this class for
doing good are greater still. Their power is more readily useful for
good than ill, as all power is. In their calling they direct and
control the machinery, the capital, and thereby the productive labor of
the whole community. They can as easily direct that well as ill; for the
benefit of all, easier than to the injury of any one. They can discover
new sources of wealth for themselves, and so for the nation; they can
set on foot new enterprises, which shall increase the comfort and
welfare of man to a vast degree, and not only that, but enlarge also the
number of men, for that always greatens in a nation, as the means of
living are made easy. They can bind the rivers, teaching them to weave
and spin. The introduction of manufactures into England, and the
application of machinery to that purpose, I doubt not has added some
millions of new lives to her population in the present century--millions
that otherwise would never have lived at all. The introduction of
manufactures into the United States, the application of water-power and
steam-power to human work, the construction of canals and railroads, has
vastly increased the comforts of the living. It helps civilize, educate
and refine men; yes, leads to an increase of the number of lives. There
are men to whom the public owes a debt which no money could pay, for it
is a debt of life. What adequate sum of gold, or what honors could
mankind give to Columbus, to Faustus, to Fulton, for their works? He
that did the greatest service ever done to mankind got from his age a
bad name and a cross for his reward. There are men whom mankind are to
thank for thousands of lives; yet men who hold no lofty niche in the
temple of fame.
By their control of the Legislature the merchants can fashion more
wisely the institutions of the land, promote the freedom of all, break
off traditionary yokes, help forward the public education of the people
by the establishment of public schools, public academies, and public
colleges. They can frame particular statutes which help and encourage
the humble and the weak, laws which prevent the causes of poverty and
crime, which facilitate for the poor man the acquisition of property,
enabling him to invest his earnings in the most profitable stocks,--laws
which bless the living, and so increase the number of lives. They can
thus help organize society after the Christian idea, and promote the
kingdom of heaven. They can make our jails institutions which really
render their inmates better, and send them out whole men, safe and
sound. We have seen them do this with lunatics, why not with those poor
wretches whom now we murder? They too can found houses of cure for
drunkards, and men yet more unfortunate when released from our prisons.
By their control of the churches, and all our seminaries, public and
private, they can encourage freedom of thought; can promote the public
morals by urging the clergy to point out and rebuke the sins of the
nation, of society, the actual sins of men now living; can encourage
them to separate theology from mythology, religion from theology, and
then apply that religion to the State, to society and the individual;
can urge them to preach both parts of religion--morality, the love of
man, and piety, the love of God, setting off both by an appeal to that
great soul who was Christianity in one person. In this way they have an
opportunity of enlarging tenfold the practical value of the churches,
and helping weed licentiousness, intemperance, want, and ignorance and
sin, clean out of man's garden here. With their encouragement, the
clergy would form a noble army contending for the welfare of men--the
church militant, but preparing to be soon triumphant. Thus laboring,
they can put an end to slavery, abolish war, and turn all the nation's
creative energies to production--their legitimate work.
Then they can promote the advance of science, of literature, of the
arts--the useful and the beautiful. We see what their famed progenitors
did in this way at Venice, Florence, Genoa. I know men say that art
cannot thrive in a republic. An opportunity is offered now to prove the
falsehood of that speech, to adorn our strength with beauty. A great
amount of creative, artistic talent is rising here and seeks employment.
They can endow hospitals, colleges, normal schools, found libraries and
establish lectures for the welfare of all. He that has the wealth of a
king may spend it like a king, not for ostentation, but for use. They
can set before men examples of industry, economy, truth, justice,
honesty, charity, of religion at her daily work, of manliness in
life--all this as no other men. Their charities need not stare you in
the face; like violets their fragrance may reach you before you see
them. The bare mention of these things recalls the long list of
benefactors, names familiar to you all--for there is one thing which
this city was once more famous for than her enterprise, and that is her
Charity--the charity which flows in public;--the noiseless stream that
shows itself only in the greener growth which marks its path.
* * * * *
Such are the position, temptations, opportunities of this class. What is
their practical influence on Church and State--on the economy of
mankind? what are they doing in the nation? I must judge them by the
highest standard that I know, the standard of justice, of absolute
religion, not out of my own caprice. Bear with me while I attempt to
tell the truth, which I have seen. If I see it not, pity me and seek
better instruction where you can find it. But if I see a needed truth,
and for my own sake refuse to speak, bear with me no more. Bid me then
repent. I am speaking of men, strong men too, and shall not spare the
truth.
There is always a conservative element in society; yes, an element
which resists the further application of Christianity to public affairs.
Once the fighters and their children were uppermost, and represented
that element. Then the merchants were reformatory, radical, in collision
with the nobles. They were "Whigs"--the nobles were "Tories." The
merchants formed themselves into companies, and got power from the crown
to protect themselves against the nobles, whom the crown also feared. It
is so in England now. The great revolution in the laws of trade lately
effected there, was brought about by the merchants, though opposed by
the lords. The anti-corn law league was a trades-union of merchants
contending against the owners of the soil. There the lord of land, and
by birth, is slowly giving way to the lord of money, who is powerful by
his knowledge or his wealth. There will always be such an element in
society. Here I think it is represented by the merchants. They are
backward in all reforms, excepting such as their own interest demands.
Thus they are blind to the evils of slavery, at least silent about them.
How few commercial or political newspapers in the land ever seriously
oppose this great national wickedness! Nay, how many of them favor its
extension and preservation! A few years ago, in this very city, a mob of
men, mainly from this class, it is said, insulted honest women peaceably
met to consult for the welfare of Christian slaves in a Christian
land--met to pray for them! A merchant of this city says publicly, that
a large majority of his brethren would kidnap a fugitive slave in
Boston; says it with no blush and without contradiction.[24] It was men
of this class who opposed the abolition of the slave-trade, and had it
guaranteed them for twenty years after the formation of the
Constitution; through their instigation that this foul blot was left to
defile the Republic and gather blackness from age to age; through their
means that the nation stands before the world pledged to maintain it.
They could end slavery at once, at least could end the national
connection with it, but it is through their support that it continues;
that it acquires new strength, new boldness, new territory, darkens the
nation's fame and hope, delays all other reformations in Church and
State and the mass of the people. Yes, it is through their influence
that the chivalry, the wisdom, patriotism, eloquence, yea, religion of
the free States, are all silent when the word slavery is pronounced.
The Senate of Massachusetts represents this more than any other class.
But all last winter it could not say one word against the wickedness of
this sin, allowed to live and grow greater in the land.[25] Just before
the last election something could be said! Do speech and silence mean
the same thing?
This class opposed abolishing imprisonment for debt, thinking it
endangered trade. They now oppose the progress of temperance and the
abolition of the gallows. They see the evils of war; they cannot see its
sin; will sustain men who help plunge the nation into its present
disgraceful and cowardly conflict; will encourage foolish young men to
go and fight in this wicked war. A great man said, or is reported to
have said, that perhaps it is not an American habit to consider the
natural justice of a war, but to count its cost! A terrible saying that!
There is a Power which considers its Justice, and will demand of us the
blood we have wickedly poured out; blood of Americans, blood of the
Mexicans! They favor indirect taxation, which is taxing the poor for
the benefit of the rich; they continue to support the causes of poverty;
as a class they are blind to this great evil of popular ignorance--the
more terrible evils of licentiousness, drunkenness and crime! They can
enrich themselves by demoralizing their brothers. I wish it was an
American habit to count the cost of that. Some "fanatic" will consider
its justice. If they see these evils they look not for their cause; at
least, strive not to remove that cause. They have long known that every
year more money is paid in Boston for poison drink to be swallowed on
the spot, a drink which does no man any good, which fills your asylums
with paupers, your jails with criminals, and houses with unutterable
misery in father, mother, wife and child,--more money every year than it
would take to build your new aqueduct and bring abundance of water fresh
to every house![26] If they have not known it, why it was their fault,
for the fact was there crying to Heaven against us all. As they are the
most powerful class, the elder brothers, American nobles if you will, it
was their duty to look out for their weaker brother. No man has strength
for himself alone. To use it for one's self alone, that is a sin. I do
not think they are conscious of the evil they do, or the evils they
allow. I speak not of motives, only of facts.
This class controls the State. The effects of that control appear in our
legislation. I know there are some noble men in political life, who have
gone there with the loftiest motives, men that ask only after what is
right. I honor such men--honor them all the more because they seem
exceptions to a general rule; men far above the spirit of any class. I
must speak of what commonly takes place. Our politics are chiefly
mercantile, politics in which money is preferred, and man postponed.
When the two come into collision, the man goes to the wall and the
street is left clear for the dollars. A few years ago in monarchical
France a report was made of the condition of the working population in
the large manufacturing towns--a truthful report, but painful to read,
for it told of strong men oppressing the weak.[27] I do not believe that
such an undisguised statement of the good and ill could be tolerated in
democratic America; no, not of the condition of men in New England; and
what would be thought of a book setting forth the condition of the
laboring men and women of the South? I know very well what is thought of
the few men who attempt to tell the truth on this subject. I think there
is no nation in Europe, except Russia and Turkey, which cares so little
for the class which reaps down its harvests and does the hard work.
When you protect the rights of all, you protect also the property of
each and by that very act. To begin the other way is quite contrary to
nature. But our politicians cannot say too little for men, nor too much
for money. Take the politicians most famous and honored at this day, and
what have they done? They have labored for a tariff, or for free trade;
but what have they done for man? nay, what have they attempted?--to
restore natural rights to men notoriously deprived of them;
progressively to elevate their material, moral, social condition? I
think no one pretends it. Even in proclamations for Thanksgiving and
days of prayer, it is not the most needy we are bid remember. Public
sins are not pointed out to be repented of. Slaveholding States shut up
in their jails our colored seamen soon as they arrive in a southern
port. A few years ago, at a time of considerable excitement here on the
slavery question, a petition was sent from this place by some merchants
and others, to one of our Senators, praying Congress to abate that evil.
For a long time that Senator could find no opportunity to present the
petition. You know how much was said and what was done! Had the South
demanded every tenth or twentieth bale of "domestics" coming from the
North; had a petition relative to that grievance been sent to Congress,
and a Senator unreasonably delayed to present it--how much more would
have been said and done; when he came back he would have been hustled
out of Boston! When South Carolina and Louisiana sent home our
messengers--driving them off with reproach, insult, and danger of their
lives--little is said and nothing done. But if the barbarous natives of
Sumatra interfere with our commerce, why, we send a ship and lay their
towns in ruins and murder the men and women! We all know that for some
years Congress refused to receive petitions relative to slavery; and we
know how tamely that was borne by the class who commonly control
political affairs! What if Congress had refused to receive petitions
relative to a tariff, or free trade, to the shipping interest, or the
manufacturing interest? When the rights of men were concerned, three
million men, only the "fanatics" complained. The political newspapers
said "Hush!"
The merchant-manufacturers want a protective tariff; the
merchant-importers, free trade; and so the national politics hinge upon
that question. When Massachusetts was a carrying State, she wanted free
trade; now a manufacturing State, she desires protection. That is all
natural enough; men wish to protect their interests, whatsoever they may
be. But no talk is made about protecting the labor of the rude man, who
has no capital, nor skill, nothing but his natural force of muscles. The
foreigner underbids him, monopolizing most of the brute labor of our
large towns and internal improvements. There is no protection, no talk
of protection for the carpenter, or the bricklayer. I do not complain of
that. I rejoice to see the poor wretches of the old world finding a home
where our fathers found one before. Yet if we cared for men more than
for money, and were consistent with our principles of protection, why,
we should exclude all foreign workmen, as well as their work, and so
raise the wages of the native hands. That would doubtless be very
foolish legislation--but perhaps not, on that account, very strange. I
know we are told that without protection, our hand-worker, whose capital
is his skill, cannot compete with the operative of Manchester and
Brussels, because that operative is paid but little. I know not if it be
true, or a mistake. But who ever told us such men could not compete with
the slave of South Carolina who is paid nothing? We have legislation to
protect our own capital against foreign capital; perhaps our own labor
against the "pauper of Europe;" why not against the slave labor of the
Southern States? Because the controlling class prefers money and
postpones man. Yet the slave-breeder is protected. He has, I think, the
only real monopoly in the land. No importer can legally spoil his
market, for the foreign slave is contraband. If I understand the matter,
the importation of slaves was allowed, until such men as pleased could
accumulate their stock. The reason why it was afterwards forbidden I
think was chiefly a mercantile reason: the slave-breeder wanted a
monopoly, for God knows and you know that it is no worse to steal grown
men in Africa than to steal new born babies in Maryland, to have them
born for the sake of stealing them. Free labor may be imported, for it
helps the merchant-producer and the merchant-manufacturer. Slave labor
is declared contraband, for the merchant-slave-breeders want a monopoly.
This same preference of money over men appears in many special statutes.
In most of our manufacturing companies the capital is divided into
shares so large that a poor man cannot invest therein! This could easily
be avoided. A man steals a candlestick out of a church, and goes to the
State Prison for a year and a day. Another quarrels with a man, maims
him for life, and is sent to the common jail for six months. A bounty is
paid, or was until lately, on every gallon of intoxicating drink
manufactured here and sent out of the country. If we begin with taking
care of the rights of man, it seems easy to take care of the rights of
labor and of capital. To begin the other way is quite another thing. A
nation making laws for the nation is a noble sight. The Government of
all, by all, and for all, is a democracy. When that Government follows
the eternal laws of God, it is founding what Christ called the kingdom
of heaven. But the predominating class making laws not for the nation's
good, but only for its own, is a sad spectacle; no reasoning can make
it other than a sorry sight. To see able men prostituting their talents
to such a work, that is one of the saddest sights! I know all other
nations have set us the example, yet it is painful to see it followed,
and here.
Our politics, being mainly controlled by this class, are chiefly
mercantile, the politics of peddlers. So political management often
becomes a trick. Hence we have many politicians, and raise a harvest of
them every year, that crop never failing, party-men who can legislate
for a class; but we have scarce one great statesman who can step before
his class, beyond his age, and legislate for a whole nation, leading the
people and giving us new ideas to incarnate in the multitude, his word
becoming flesh. We have not planters, but trimmers! A great statesman
never came of mercantile politics, only of politics considered as the
national application of religion to life. Our political morals, you all
know what they are, the morals of a huckster. This is no new thing; the
same game was played long ago in Venice, Pisa, Florence, and the result
is well known. A merely mercantile politician is very sharp-sighted and
perhaps far-sighted, but a dollar will cover the whole field of his
vision and he can never see through it. The number of slaves in the
United States is considerably greater than our whole population when we
declared Independence, yet how much talk will a tariff make, or a
public dinner; how little the welfare of three million men! Said I not
truly, our most famous politicians are, in the general way, only
mercantile party-men? Which of these men has shown the most interest in
those three million slaves? The man who in the Senate of a Christian
Republic valued them at twelve hundred million dollars! Shall
respectable men say, "We do not care what sort of a Government the
people have, so long as we get our dividends." Some say so; many men do
not say that, but think so and act accordingly! The Government,
therefore, must be so arranged that they get their dividends.
This class of men buys up legislators, consciously or not, and pays
them, for value received. Yes, so great is its daring and its conscious
power, that we have recently seen our most famous politician bought up,
the stoutest understanding that one finds now extant in this whole
nineteenth century, perhaps the ablest head since Napoleon. None can
deny his greatness, his public services in times past, nor his awful
power of intellect. I say we have seen him, a Senator of the United
States, pensioned by this class, or a portion thereof, and thereby put
mainly in their hands! When a whole nation rises up and publicly throws
its treasures at the feet of a great man who has stood forth manfully
contending for the nation, and bids him take their honors and their gold
as a poor pay for noble works, why that sight is beautiful, the
multitude shouting hosanna to their King, and spreading their garments
underneath his feet! Man is loyal, and such honors so paid, and to such,
are doubly gracious; becoming alike to him that takes and those who
give. Yes, when a single class, to whom some man has done a great
service, goes openly and makes a memorial thereof in gold and honors
paid to him, why that also is noble and beautiful. But when a single
class, in a country where political doings are more public than
elsewhere in the whole world, secretly buys up a man, in high place and
world-famous, giving him a retaining fee for life, why the deed is one I
do not wish to call by name! Could such men do this without a secret
shame? I will never believe it of my countrymen.[28] A gift blinds a
wise man's eyes, perverts the words even of the righteous, stopping his
mouth with gold so that he cannot reprove a wrong! But there is an
absolute justice which is neither bought nor sold! I know other nations
have done the same and with like effect. Fight with silver weapons, said
the Delphic oracle, and you'll conquer all. It has always been the craft
of despots to buy up aspiring talent; some with a title; some with gold.
Allegiance to the sovereign is the same thing on both sides of the
water, whether the sovereign be an eagle or a guinea. Some American, it
is said, wrote the Lord's Prayer on one side of a dime, and the Ten
Commandments on the other. The Constitution and a considerable
commentary might perhaps be written on the two sides of a dollar!